1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is an accessory for use by individuals who have been inflicted with cancers, stomach or bowel wounds, or other bowel disorders, and who then must rely on an alternate means of removing excrement and gas from the body. The device is a portable and inexpensive, Sound-Insulated Gas-Diverting Colostomy Container. It provides a means of diverting gas from fecal matter while the colostomy bag operates to isolate the colon, intestine, or anus during defecation.
The instant invention is worn by the patients who are in need of a short or long-term means of passing feces and urine. It can be contoured to the body for comfort and easily disposed of and replaced. Lightweight, sound and odor-insulating, and relatively inconspicuous, the container provides the user proper, quiet, and convenient care.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Prior Art encompasses a variety of colostomy and enterostomy related appliances. Also included are accompanying devices developed to improve ostomy care.
Inflictions that necessitate the use of ostomy care are common, and different means of enabling the healing process currently exist. Applications previously have been developed to improve function. Single-chambered devices used to reduce noise from gas emission have stressed the importance of comfort and social rehabilitation. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,406,657.
The Prior Art does not include devices which provide a solution to all of the problems that must be overcome for a patient to feel comfortable outside of the hospital environment, while at the same time maximizing function. Specifically, the devices, and combinations thereof, show art restricted to single functionality and/or manual operation in separating gas and solid-liquid fecal matter. Where odor and/or noise control are a factor in previous inventions, patient involvement was necessary in the separation and ridding of gases, assuming gas was excluded from any second chamber. Also, Prior Art inventions which teach sound attenuation do not collaterally serve the purpose of separating gas and solid/liquid matter. In the current art, the passing of a stool required disassembly of the apparatus as fecal matter could produce reverse flow back into the stoma. It is important for those patients who are able to seek care outside of the hospital setting that they get all of the advantages to stoma care, both socially and physically, and with minimum personnel involvement through the use of automatic features. There exists, then, the need for such a device that is encompassed in the present invention, and not in the Prior Art or the reasonable extensions thereof.